The shocking line from Lilyās well-arranged lips pierced my heart strongly and deeply.
My breathing hitched.
My head was shaking so violently that I felt like I was going to lose control of my body.
I wanted to deny it.
I wanted to scream that this canāt be true.
However, even I understood the situation.
No matter how I tried to explain it, Lily, whose breast-like stuffing had fallen out, is completely a male.
However, howeverā¦ā¦ I donāt understand.
Why did she, no, heā¦ā¦
[You look like youāre asking why. ā¦ā¦I donāt even want to talk about it, but well, whatever. You see, the name āLilyā, thatās my real name.]
I was more than a little surprised when I heard him say that.
""
I know the Status of a person by using <Inspect> on them.
However, the name displayed on the Status is often āthe name the Character introduced themselves asā, not necessarily their real name.
From the time I found out that Lily was a man, I thought that her real name was something else.
I donāt know about the conventional naming sense of the people in this world, but it should be basically the same as a Japaneseās.
And yet, why would he, a man, have a name like āLilyāā¦ā¦
[ā¦ā¦Ah, yep, that. Thatās the reaction people have.]
Lilyās face twisted in displeasure.
The cold expression she has as she looked down on me was tinged with even more contempt.
[I have talked with you about it before, that āI didnāt really like my nameā. I was bullied a lot as a child because of my name. The boys in the neighborhood kept on telling me all sorts of things, like āItās disgusting to have a female name even though youāre a guyā or āWhoa, the girly guy arrived!ā. There were even times when people I met for the first time said āEven though you have a girlās nameā¦ā¦ What, itās a guy huh.ā]
As Lily talked about her past as if it were some sort of pleasant memory, I couldnāt stop the shiver running down my spine.
[I thought āWhatās wrong with a guy having the name Lily!?ā, but I was too weak-minded to actually say anything back then. I hated my parents. Why did they give me such a name? At my question, they simply answered me.]
Thereupon, as if she was finding something amusing, she continued with a smirk.
[My mother had a miscarriage before she had me. She said it was a girl, and the name they were supposed to give that baby was āLilyā. As I was stunned by the story I heard for the first time, my mother hugged me and said. āIām sorry for the hardships you had to face because of your name. However, we named you Lily not because we donāt love you. We just wanted to give you the name of the most beautiful being we knowā.]
Before I knew it, I had forgotten the situation and was listening to Lilyās story.
[When they said that, I couldnāt say anything. I simply went back to my room and stared in the mirror, seeing myself thatās neither manly nor feminine, and not even beautiful, I felt like I was the most miserable being of all. ā¦ā¦But at that moment, I thought. āIn that case, I will just be beautifulā.]
The moment Lily said that, I felt like the atmosphere around her changed.
[I borrowed my motherās clothes and dressed as a woman for the first time. All those clothes were too tight for me and I didnāt know how to put on makeup, so to say the least, it was a lousy outfit. But still, when I looked into the mirror, I saw a ābeautiful girlā.]
Lilyās tone was filled with fervor.
[I donāt think I can put into words the emotions I felt at that time. I was more beautiful and prettier than anyone Iād ever seen in my age group, and I was convinced that I could become even more beautiful. Thatās when I made up my mind. I was going to make me, no, āLilyā, the best girl ever!]
The narrative becomes smoother and smoother, and even I am getting caught up in that bizarre world.
[Everything after that became simpler. I gathered girlsā clothes in an inconspicuous way and found a way to make Lily look beautifulā¦ā¦. After that, in the blink of an eye, that moment came. When I said to my parents, āI want to travel like you twoā they gave me permission right away. That day, I left the city where I grew upā¦ā¦ and was reborn anew.]
āāāāYouāre crazy.
That was my first thought when I saw that madness.
However, even soā¦ā¦
[After that, the world, no, everything turned upside down. The men who had been making fun of me started blushing red at the mere sight of me and choked on their words, and the women who had been talking behind my back could only bite their lip in defeat. Among other things, it was hilarious to watch me, my best āLilyā, lead men around by the nose. What could be more fun than that?]
Lily, her cheeks uplifted and talking about her crazy ideals, was indeed beautiful.
[ā¦ā¦But you seeā¦ā¦]
All of a sudden, the tone of his voice changes.
āāāāGan!
Once again, I was stomped on the head.
[People like you would sometimes pop out! Idiots who donāt freaking know their place! Donāt you freaking get it? You men are just tools to glorify me! And you freaking see, saying stuff like thatā¦ā¦]
The overpowering smacking sounds echoed.
His angry voice incessantly rained down on me within my shaky vision.
[Theyāre freaking disgusting! Even though you donāt freaking know Iām a man, telling me you like me, leaning forward and expecting a kiss, spouting out love! All of you are just horny monkeys all the time!]
As expected, even Iām running out of patience.
I did confess to him without realizing he was a guy.
However, that doesnāt mean I deserve to be told all these things by this guy.
No, in the first place, the one who tricked me was him!
Making all that fuss, saying heās a man, the one who should be troubled should be me!
[Hnfufuā¦ā¦?]
The situation changed once again.
As if in response to the voltage of my anger, I pushed aside his foot that had been trampling me and slowly pushing him backā¦ā¦
[āāāā-What do you think this is?]
However, the moment Lily, who seemed to be enjoying himself, showed me āitā, my movements stopped.
[A Video Recorderā¦ā¦ Crystal.]
Those words astoundedly escaped my mouth.
As the madness she has somehow disappeared somehow, Lily grins, seemingly enjoying my reaction.
[It seems like youāve figured out the situation here. Everything that has happened, itās all been caught here. It fully reflects the pervert who came up to the reluctant me with his gross confession and tried to kiss me forcibly.]
I feel as if my eyes are becoming completely dark.
With a clang, my vision drops again.
[ā¦ā¦Arehhhhhh? You suddenly lost your fire, whatās wrong with you? Youāre the Hero, arenāt you? You can easily defeat a bard like me, canāt you? Hey? Hey, hey?]
Heās being unreasonable.
I want to say something back to him.
However, I couldnāt say anything.
In the midst of the storm of violence brought upon by an unreasonable outburst of anger, āIā was silently curling myself up.
[Hey, how do you feel now? You came to this trap dungeon with all your ulterior motives against a man, and you left all your oh so powerful equipment behind! How does it feel, being set up and trampled like this? Hey? Heeeeeeey?]
Scorn.
Ridicule.
I wanted to scream, tell him to stop.
To not break the āLilyā in me anymore.
[First of all, havenāt you ever thought it was strong? āI donāt need the loot~~. Seeing the scenery in my parentsā memory is the best reward~~ā]
However, I canāt say anything.
Without being able to say anything back, Lily looked toward meā¦ā¦.
[āāāāāA woman like that doesnāt exist, idiot. Stop daydreaming, virgin.]
At that moment, something snapped inside me.
[Uwaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!]
Screaming meaninglessly, I scratched my head and felt like tearing off my hair, and thenā¦ā¦.
āāāā-I turned off the console.
ā ā ā
[Uwaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh!]
Screaming meaninglessly, I felt like tearing my head off.
(Black historyā¦ā¦. Iām being reminded of my black history!!!)
A few years ago.
I was still a college student, living a life immersed in B&B.
If you ask me, I was a rather cynical person who took the stance that āgetting emotionally caught up with game characters isnāt cool,ā but I fell deeply in love with one of the B&Bās characters, <Lily Harmonix>.
It was a time when there was hardly any information on B&B, and never realizing that Lily was a man, thatās how I ended up with the worst ending.
(D*mn it! D*mn it, d*mn it, d*mn it!)
Years have passed since then, but I still havenāt forgiven āLilyā and the evil devs of <Brave & Blade>.
After all, thatās just not fair!
No matter how you look at him, from all distances and angles, the guy looks like a woman, and most of all, his voice actor was a woman!
That event where a character looks and acts like a girl and then suddenly insists, āToo bad, Iām actually a femboy!ā
I freaking hate it!
In fact, I wasnāt Lilyās only victim.
He has become loathed by most of the B&B players, making her the worst character for most players by far.
After all, the playerās encounter rate with that guy is quite high.
Lilyās encounter events are so major that itās said āitās rarer not to meet that eventā.
To be more specific, by the middle of in-gameās 2nd year, an event occurs when Lily enters the tavern while the both of you were in the same town.
Thereupon, you will witness Lily being entangled in trouble in the tavern.
A weak girl who gets tangled up with a drunkard, a situation that no one but the most distorted people would abandon.
And then, once you got involved with Lily, it would be natural for the player to wish heād come to join your party, and faced with such a situation, Lily drove all the players who thought so into that hell.
Some might argue that if he was just a transvestite, he would have been normally supported by female players, but to be frankā¦ā¦ the character designs of femboys aimed at men and transvestites aimed at women are apparently fundamentally different.
Except for her ābeing a manā setting and her breasts being just slime pads stuffing, Lily is completely female in design, and her voice is also female.
As a result, he became the character disliked by most of the players, except for a few players who claimed to be men of culture, apparently awakening to some sort of weird fetish.
Some of the players like me were heartbroken, and there were even stories of quite a few complaints being sent out to the devs.
I might have done the same thing if my sorrow hadnāt outweighed my anger.
(However, thatās all over now.)
The chance for revenge has come.
āāāāāJust you wait, Lily. This time Iām going to make you crawl on the ground and watch your unsightly apologies!!!
As I sat in a seiza and wrote my reflections in front of Resilia, who was glaring at me with her arms crossed, I fearlessly smiled.